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08:30AM

Year-on-year house price gain hits six-year highby Steve Goldstein

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- U.S. home prices grew 0.4% in December to stretch the year-on-year gain to 8.3%, the strongest advance since May 2006, CoreLogic said Tuesday. CoreLogic said 46 of 50 states registered gains for the year. Arizona has the strong year-on-year appreciation at 20.2%, though prices are down 39.8% from the peak. Nationally, prices are down 26.9% from the April 2006 peak. CoreLogic's pending index forecasts a 1% monthly drop in January, reflecting a seasonal winter slowdown.

08:02AM

Sirius XM Radio profit more than doubles
(
SIRI
)
by Saumya Vaishampayan

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Sirius XM Radio Inc.
(siri)
reported on Tuesday that fourth-quarter profit more than doubled to $156.2 million, or 2 cents per diluted share, from $71.3 million, or 1 cent a share, in the year-ago period. Quarterly revenue rose to $892.4 million from $783.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2011. A survey of analysts by FactSet produced consensus estimates of profit of 2 cents a share for the quarter on revenue of $899.7 million. The New York-based satellite radio provider said it expected 2013 revenue of more than $3.7 billion and total net subscriber additions of about 1.4 million in the same period. Sirius XM said it will begin its previously announced $2 billion stock repurchase program.

FRANKFURT (MarketWatch) -- French President Francois Hollande on Tuesday called on Europe to set up an exchange rate mechanism to protect the euro from "irrational movements," news reports said, marking the most high-profile complaint yet about the strength of the shared currency. The euro shouldn't "fluctuate following the market's moods," Hollande told the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, saying that the region needs a "foreign exchange rate policy," The Wall Street Journal reported. Without one, the euro's value "doesn't correspond to the real economy," he said. The euro
(eurusd)
traded at $1.3534 in recent activity, up from $1.3511 in North American trade late Monday. The comments "would carry more weight if they were echoed by the [European Central Bank]," said Adam Cole, currency strategist at RBC Capital Markets, noting that so far the ECB has steered clear of commenting on the euro's exchange rate.

06:56AM

Japan protests after China points radar at vesselby MarketWatch

FRANKFURT (MarketWatch) -- Japan on Tuesday filed a protest with Beijing after a Chinese ship pointed a radar typically used to guide missles at a Japanese navy ship in the latest controversy over tiny, disputed islands in the East China Sea, news reports said. The incident occured on Jan. 30, Japan's defense ministry said, according to the BBC. "Directing such radar is very abnormal. We recognize it would create a very dangerous situation if a single misstep occurred," said Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera, according to the BBC.

06:16AM

Dell deal could be announced Tuesday: report
(
DELL
)
by Barbara Kollmeyer

MADRID (MarketWatch) -- A much-anticipated deal for Dell Inc.
(dell)
could be announced as soon as Tuesday morning. Citing people close to the matter, media reports said the board had reportedly planned to meet Monday evening to vote on an offer to take the company private for about $24 billion. The offer values Dell at $13.50 to $13.75 a share, reports said. A spokesman for Dell declined to comment in those reports.

FRANKFURT (MarketWatch) -- Private-sector activity across the euro zone continued to shrink in January, but saw the smallest decline in 10 months, according to the Markit composite purchasing-managers' index, or PMI, released Tuesday. The index came in at 48.6, up from 47.2 in December and above a preliminary estimate of 48.2. The services PMI for the region also came in at 48.6, up from December's 47.8 and a preliminary reading of 48.3. A figure below 50 indicates a contraction in activity. National PMI readings, however, highlighted diverging performance within the euro zone, with Germany expanding at its strongest clip in 19 months while Spain, Italy and France each saw a sharper contraction. "While German companies reported the strongest growth for almost a year-and-a-half, French firms suffered the steepest downturn for nearly four years, with output falling at a much faster rate than in both Spain and Italy," said Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit.

03:18AM

Europe stocks recoup after sharp sell offby Sara Sjolin

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- European stock markets moved higher in early action on Tuesday, recouping from a sharp sell-off the prior day, with investors digesting a raft of earnings reports from some of the region's heavyweights. The Stoxx Europe 600 index
(xx:sxxp)
rose 0.3% to 284.81, after slumping 1.5% the prior day. Shares of ARM Holdings PLC
(uk:arm)
jumped 6.2% as the chip maker posted a 19% rise in fourth-quarter revenue. Shares of BG Group PLC
(uk:bg)
lost 3.2% after warning it will miss its production target in 2015. Among country-specific indexes, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 index
(uk:ukx)
rose 0.2%, while France's CAC 40 index
(fr:px1)
climbed 0.3% to 3,672.13. Germany's DAX 30 index
(dx:dax)
added 0.2% to 7,649.21.

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